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Iran Reveals Talks with Afghanistan Taliban

Afghanistan Taliban forces, (Reuters)
Afghanistan Taliban forces, (Reuters)
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Iran Reveals Talks with Afghanistan Taliban

Afghanistan Taliban forces, (Reuters)
Afghanistan Taliban forces, (Reuters)

Taliban representatives from Afghanistan held another round of talks in Tehran to put an end to the 17-year-long conflict, the Iranian foreign ministry said Monday.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that talks between the Taliban delegation and Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi took place Sunday with the knowledge of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Ghasemi said the two sides discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan."

He also said that Araqchi will visit Afghanistan in the next two weeks to discuss common cultural, economic and political affairs. He will also tackle strategic cooperation between the two neighbors.

Five joint committees are dedicated to addressing this cooperation, said the foreign ministry.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.

Taliban reiterated rejection to meet any representative of the Afghan government in Kabul. There will not be any peace deal in Afghanistan before the withdrawal of foreign forces, it affirmed.

The movement turned down a proposal by US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad for a six-month ceasefire, during his talks with a Taliban delegation two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi. The talks were attended by representatives from Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Iran is seeking to play a greater role in the Afghanistan peace process. The Taliban, meanwhile, is seeking to rule the country should foreign forces withdraw. It has been assuring Afghanistan’s neighbors that its rule will guarantee peace, security and stability.

Months earlier, Taliban struck understandings with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It also discussed with Pakistani authorities affairs of Afghani refugees in Pakistan.

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World

Iran Deputy FM Says Trump Threats to Hit Civilian Sites Could Be War Crimes

A man takes pictures with his mobile phone of the B1 bridge, a day after it was destroyed by a strike in Karaj, around 20miles (35kms) southwest of Tehran, April 3, 2026. (AFP)
A man takes pictures with his mobile phone of the B1 bridge, a day after it was destroyed by a strike in Karaj, around 20miles (35kms) southwest of Tehran, April 3, 2026. (AFP)
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Iran Deputy FM Says Trump Threats to Hit Civilian Sites Could Be War Crimes

A man takes pictures with his mobile phone of the B1 bridge, a day after it was destroyed by a strike in Karaj, around 20miles (35kms) southwest of Tehran, April 3, 2026. (AFP)
A man takes pictures with his mobile phone of the B1 bridge, a day after it was destroyed by a strike in Karaj, around 20miles (35kms) southwest of Tehran, April 3, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Monday that US President Donald Trump's threats to strike power plants and bridges in Iran could amount to war crimes.

"The American president, as the highest official of his country, has publicly threatened to commit war crimes," Gharibabadi said in a post on X, citing provisions of international law that could be breached.

"The threat to attack power plants and bridges (civilian infrastructure) is a war crime under Article 8(2)(b) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," he added.

World

South Korea Says ‘Credible Intelligence’ Indicates North Korean Leader’s Daughter Is Successor

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae ride a tank during what North Korean state news agency KCNA reports is an offensive tactical drill involving a new type of tank, at a training base in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2026, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae ride a tank during what North Korean state news agency KCNA reports is an offensive tactical drill involving a new type of tank, at a training base in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2026, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
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South Korea Says ‘Credible Intelligence’ Indicates North Korean Leader’s Daughter Is Successor

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae ride a tank during what North Korean state news agency KCNA reports is an offensive tactical drill involving a new type of tank, at a training base in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2026, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae ride a tank during what North Korean state news agency KCNA reports is an offensive tactical drill involving a new type of tank, at a training base in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2026, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)

South Korea's spy agency now believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's teenage daughter has been positioned as his successor, lawmakers said on Monday, citing a recent public display of her driving a tank that was likely intended to dispel any doubts.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers its assessment was not based on circumstantial inference, but on what it described as "credible intelligence" collected by the ‌agency, according to ‌briefings by ruling and opposition party members after a ‌closed-door ⁠parliamentary meeting.

The NIS ⁠said the imagery of the daughter driving a tank was intended to highlight her supposed military aptitude and dispel doubts over a female heir, lawmakers said.

North Korea's state-run media KCNA last month published photos of Kim and his daughter driving a new tank, following earlier images showing her firing a rifle at a shooting range and using a handgun.

Such scenes are ⁠intended to pay "homage" to Kim's own public military appearances ‌during the early 2010s when he ‌was being prepared to succeed his own father, ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sun-won ‌said.

The latest assessment of Kim's daughter, who is believed to be ‌around 13 and to be named Ju Ae, is a progression from earlier analysis by the spy agency which said she was likely being groomed to succeed her father.

Ju Ae's repeated presence at defense-related events is aimed at easing doubts ‌over a female successor and accelerating the construction of a succession narrative, the lawmakers said, citing the NIS.

Lawmakers ⁠have previously ⁠said the agency believes her increasingly prominent role suggests she is already being treated as the de facto second-highest figure in the North’s leadership.

People Power Party lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun said the NIS noted that suggestions Kim's younger sister Kim Yo Jong might be unhappy about the focus on Ju Ae were misplaced, as Kim Yo Jong does not hold independent power.

Some North Korea experts, however, urged caution in interpreting the images as definitive succession signals.

Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Ju Ae's tank appearance alone was insufficient to conclude she had been confirmed as Kim's heir, noting she appeared alongside her father rather than independently, unlike Kim Jong Un's own solo military appearances during his grooming phase.

World

Israeli Rescuers Search for Missing in Building Strike, Two Dead

Israeli rescue teams search for missing people amid the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP)
Israeli rescue teams search for missing people amid the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP)
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Israeli Rescuers Search for Missing in Building Strike, Two Dead

Israeli rescue teams search for missing people amid the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP)
Israeli rescue teams search for missing people amid the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP)

Israeli firefighters were searching for two missing people in the rubble of a residential building in the northern city of Haifa after it was struck by an Iranian missile that killed two others, authorities said Monday.

The direct hit on a seven-storey building tore through sections of the structure which has partially collapsed, the military and rescue services said.

AFP footage showed rescuers using flashlights to search through rubble and scattered concrete blocks.

The strike took place minutes after the military warned it had detected a new round of missiles fired from Iran at around 1500 GMT.

Elad Edri, chief of staff of Israel's Home Front Command, said that four people were missing.

"We have a major destruction site," he said in a video statement.

Israel's Fire and Rescue Services said later that two of the four people trapped under the rubble had been found dead.

The building was hit by a "direct impact of a missile", a military spokesperson told AFP, confirming it was fired from Iran.

- Elderly man, baby wounded -

Israel's emergency service, Magen David Adom, said four people were wounded in the strike, including a 10-month-old baby who suffered a head injury.

An 82-year-old man was also in a "serious condition", MDA said. A hospital later said he was stable.

He was "wounded by a heavy object and the blast", the MDA said, adding that the other three suffered shrapnel and blast injuries.

Dozens of Israeli security and members of rescue forces were deployed at the site of the strike, an AFP correspondent reported.

Images and footage published by MDA show smoke rising from the remains of a flattened building in a densely populated area, and stretchers laid on the road by rescuers for casualties.

MDA paramedic Shevach Rothenshtrych quoted residents saying that there were casualties trapped under the rubble on the lower floors, and the 82-year-old was rescued after first responders "managed to move large pieces of concrete with our hands".

His colleague Tal Shustak said that when emergency calls were received, "we were dispatched in large forces to the scene and saw extensive destruction, including glass, smoke and concrete scattered across the ground".

On Monday, the military detected fresh waves of missiles fired from Iran, and each time it said its "defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat".

Iran has fired missiles daily at Israel since February 28, in retaliation to joint US-Israeli attacks on the country that has killed several top Iranian leaders, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli and US airstrikes have attacked a number of Iran's missile production sites and also nuclear facilities.